Armed with papers of a two-guntha plot in Shivane village in the district, Maruti Sakharam Wanjale can soon move his family to this plot after construction, after almost a four-decade wait by his family.

Wanjale is among 70 villagers of Ahire rehabilitated at Shivane village. Ahire village was acquired by the National Defence Academy (NDA) in 1973-74.

Wanjale was granted the order and given the seven by twelve extracts for the plot at Ganapati mata in Shivne village, the original beneficiary being his grandfather Annabhau Wanjale. There were 151 rehabilitated and some were given the rehabilitation package immediately and the remaining 70 were granted the order on Thursday.

Ironically, no of the beneficiaries in whose names the land was supposed to have been transferred is alive. Almost the entire 70 are second or third generation descendants of the original beneficiaries. “It has been a long wait but we are glad the administration cleared the order and we can move to our own homes,” says Harinarayan Wanjale, another beneficiary.

The administration has 10-15 acres with it and gave two gunthas to each beneficiary and asked them to start construction. Post acquisition, nearly 40 years back, the rehabilitation order was sent to the government by the then collector Srinivas Patil in 1991-92. It took a long time to get the orders, say state government officials.

While the villagers were provided alternative land at Ahire, the actual title came on Thursday. “There were some issues of persons not giving up the land and all those had to be sorted out. However, the order is finally being implemented after 40 years,” said a district official.

This could have been speeded up but after the first order, there were some clearances but some of them had not paid the requisite amount of Rs 4,500 according to rehabilitation rules and there were some other issues of claimants which delayed the process, stated the official.

The villagers faced a lot of issues after many villagers post the acquisition refused to move as they found it difficult to access their agricultural land. The matter was taken up with the state government and an alternate site was provided. The villagers will finally have these plots, along with all the documents. Among the 70 persons, the sole woman among the beneficiaries, Dhondubai Wanjale, feels the delay in rehabilitation was too long.